Festivities worldwide give marketers a unique opportunity to connect with their consumer base. Each culture has its celebrations. However, getting together with family and friends, spending time with your loved ones, and exchanging gifts are constant themes that underline every festival. This year, even Google has joined the party with their digital fireworks when searching for “Lunar New Year.”
January 22 marks the Lunar New Year, i.e. the beginning of a lunar calendar and one of the most important celebrations of the year in East and Southeast Asian cultures. This is the Year of Rabbit and the first Lunar New Year celebration after China lifted their zero-COVID policy, placed in early 2020.
As we continue to return to normalcy post the COVID-19 pandemic, online and retail sales are returning to pre-pandemic levels. On occasions like the Lunar New Year, consumers show increased intent to make purchases. What this means for brands is that a mere online search can quickly translate into an online or in-store purchase. Now, pair the emotion of festivities with online shopping and you are bound to see an increase in impulsive purchases, setting the stage perfectly for marketers to tweak their marketing strategies to reach audiences — on Connected TV (CTV).
A win-win situation for consumers and advertisers, this newly promised land of digital advertising provides advertisers with an opportunity for better-targeted advertising and more engagement. Consumers, on the other hand, have the flexibility to choose content, as well as the provider, at their disposal. Access to CTV is almost mainstream in Southeast Asia, and to unlock the true potential of CTV, advertisers should be able to access transparency at a scale beyond the app level. Sharing below a few key features propelling CTV growth:
- Expanded reach: Connected TV is in more homes than ever before. According to Integral Ad Science’s (IAS) 17th Edition of the Media Quality Report, CTV was the most viewable format worldwide at 93.2% viewability. In APAC, it is estimated that more than 400 million people now use OTT streaming services.
- Superior Quality: CTV offers higher-quality ad placements for brands. It supports full-screen, targeted, personalized, HD-quality ads with stereo sound and, as a result, positively promotes brand exposure.
- Engaged audiences: The always-on nature of CTV can deliver marked benefits for brands. Consider this: consumers can watch a wide range of premium programming on CTV, day or night. Unlike the broadcast TV model of higher ad rates for prime-time positioning, CTV advertisers have access to expanded, high-quality inventory that’s not time-bound. CTV has become a go-to platform for premium content streaming such as documentaries, live concerts, and more, building massive, engaged audiences and a new canvas for advertisers.
- More options and control: CTV is all about options. It provides viewers with a diverse selection of programming, whenever they want to watch it. By giving consumers more control, a powerful thing happens — they experience a higher level of satisfaction from the viewing experience and, as a result, this can have a positive halo effect on their perception of the ads they see. What does that mean for brands? Think about the potential for more positive brand perception, engagement, and more.
- Measuring ad effectiveness on CTV: Measurement is key to understanding how well your digital campaign has performed. Impressions delivered through CTV streaming devices while televisions are off are a key measurement challenge plaguing the industry. A recently published study by GroupM revealed that 17% of impressions delivered through CTV streaming devices such as dongles, gaming consoles, and dongles/ sticks are delivered while televisions are off. This is observed in CTV devices or apps with their power source, where the device might still be on when the TV is turned off, so ads play but are never seen on screen.
As CTV becomes even more mainstream this year, brands must ensure a return on their investments. Always start with the data, measuring CTV inventory for viewability and completion rates to ensure campaigns are driving the expected impact. With the growth of programmatic buying in CTV, advertisers can capitalize on new inventory alongside their wider programmatic buys to maximize the CTV opportunity.
